Inexpressible Joy
In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trails, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:6-9)
Inexpressible joy! How can we express a joy that is inexpressible? Perhaps you have seen some crazy beautiful view in the mountains, or prairies or the heavens and you try to describe it to a friend and it just doesn’t translate. Even if you have a picture of it, the breathtaking beauty is just not captured. And when I use the word ‘breathtaking’ I mean your breath is suspended because of the beauty of God’s creation.
In a similar, but magnified way, the believers to whom Peter was writing had a joy so great that words could not communicate it. But what is really interesting is in what context this joy happens.
Firstly, Peter has blessed the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ for His 1) great mercy, 2) their being born again to a living hope through Christ’s resurrection from the dead, 3) to obtain an imperishable, undefiled, and nonfading inheritance, and 4) protected by the power of God through faith. It is in these truths that they greatly rejoice. They are rejoicing in the salvation that God has provided them according to His great mercy.
But following on the heels of Peter stating that they were greatly rejoicing, he goes on to say that this is so ‘even though’ they were currently being distressed by various trials. Peter goes on to tell them why the trials are in fact a good thing. Refining gold, (gold that is put through the fire to remove all things not gold), is an example of trials for the believer, although even gold is perishable. The trials to our faith are to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. When we hear stories of Christians, (past or present) who are experiencing trials (imprisonment or death) and yet are enduring, we can understand that the outcome is more precious and more beautiful than the gold that was before the trial. And then we give praise to Jesus when He is made known.
We know that in our current climate when our (rather small) trials occur we are totally stressed out. This concept of ‘greatly rejoicing’ in difficult circumstances is a foreign concept. And if someone says they are rejoicing they are not easily believed. Do we believe Peter’s description of these first century Christians?
It is in this Jesus (whom these Christians had not seen but had loved and believed in and were suffering for) that they greatly rejoiced, which joy in fact was both inexpressible and full of glory. All of this culminates in the salvation of their souls, and that salvation is the outcome of their faith.
Heather Jean Wilson Torosyan